Whitby & District Astronomical Society

So near and yet so far...our hoodoo at Whitby Youth Hostel was so nearly broken, but again a sunny, clear morning and early afternoon gave way to cloud, and finally light rain - just in time for the event.  Yet again plan B (although it is rapidly developing into plan A), the 'indoor show' was pressed into action.

With the evening forecast in mind just the one scope had been loaded - the 150mm (6") Dobsonian and used as a prop.  Everything else was geared to the indoor presentation. Brian, Lee and Mark travelled in two vehicles, having picked up Keith headed up to the hostel in good time.  The whole East Cliff area was busy with people going too and fro soaking up the Halloween experience on offer at the Abbey.

Mark has good form for forgetting items for WYH events and didn't disappoint on this occasion, forgetting an important USB stick.  Having met Aaran (our contact) in the foyer and sorted the parking out, Mark left the gang to ferry all the gear into the room before going back home to retrieve said stick, arriving back with a few minutes to spare, by which time John L had also made it, bolstering WDAS support.

All those attending began to take their seats, the room pretty much full shortly after 7pm. Following a brief introduction by Glynnis - events co-ordinator at WYH and then a brief explanation by Mark on how the evening was likely to run (with apologies on the weather), we pressed on down an all too familiar 'non observing route'.  

This entailed the usual mix of sky app presentation, scale demo's, Q&A's, meteorites etc followed by refreshments (Mmm) and then further presentations.  Time as usual seemed to fly by, although we did have a full two hours (and a bit) to fill. People were amazed at the comet and aurora images and clips (courtesy Richard Randle) hardly believing such displays possible from this latitude.  All the while the rain gently fell outside, but seemingly nobody cared that observations were unlikely.  

Yet another occasion where we couldn't view through the telescopes, but as evenings go, I think everyone really appreciated our efforts, taking away with them knowledge and a better understanding of the night sky. Many thanks to Brian, Lee, John and Keith for their assistance as always and Aaran and Glynnis at the hostel.  And now for the second event on Friday 1st- see next month's notes.